Nicholas finished the thought. “So whom-or what-does Dee want to raise from the dead?” He placed his hand flat on top of the crystal skull. “If we could only see what’s happening…” A pale green light pulsed once deep within the skull and then faded. Perenelle placed her hand on top of her husband’s. Speckles of white crawled along her fingertips, sank through Flamel’s wrinkled flesh and seeped into the crystal. A white light tinted with the hint of green throbbed in the eye sockets. Then it faded. “We’re not strong enough.” Nicholas slumped back into the chair, though Perenelle kept his hand pressed to the crystal.

“Why did you bring this evil thing?” Prometheus asked.

“We were going to use it to try to control the monsters on Alcatraz,” Perenelle explained. “Areop-Enap is still on the island. I thought if we could see through the Old Spider’s eyes, we would be able to turn the creatures against one another. Many of them are natural enemies. I thought it might buy us a little time until Sophie and Josh were fully trained.”

“A good plan,” Prometheus agreed. “But you need to fuel the skull with your auras.”

“We were rather counting on Sophie and Josh to help us.”

The Elder looked at each of them in turn. “You do realize that when you are feeding the skull, it is feeding off you, drinking your auras, your memories, your emotions,” he said slowly. “The skulls are true vampires. The twins are young; the process would have taken a few years off their lives, but they would have survived. In your present state, you would not.”

“We have spent our entire lives fighting for the survival of the human race,” Perenelle said quietly. “We cannot stop now. We will fight to our last breaths to protect it from the Dark Elders.”

“You would have paid a heavy price.”

“Everything has a price,” Nicholas said simply. “And some prices are worth paying.” He drew in a deep breath and looked at the Elder. “You paid a heavy price for bringing the humani to life.”

Prometheus nodded.

“Have you ever regretted it?”

“Not for a moment.” Prometheus stared at the skull. “Not for a single moment,” he said softly, and then grunted a bitter laugh. “Crystal libraries, my sister called these. She suspected that they might even have been partially responsible for the annihilation of the Archon race, and she destroyed as many as she could. Some knowledge should not be passed on, she said. And there was one piece of advice she gave me time and again: an Elder must never, ever, touch the skulls.”

“Why not?” Nicholas asked.